According to Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer, there were rumors of Brock Lesnar's retirement from the UFC for weeks before his loss to Alistair Overeem at UFC 141 on Friday night. Meltzer stated on his radio show that he had heard weeks ago that the former UFC heavyweight champion may be WWE bound.

"I heard for the past three or four weeks that if Brock were to lose don't be surprised to see him in WWE fairly soon," said Meltzer (props to reader Pete Gerber for passing along the transcription).

Meltzer noted that Lesnar's retirement speech "was clearly practiced" and that he knew he would retire ahead of time.

"I don't know if he had told anyone but there were rumors going around, not so much that he was going to quit, but there was an offer out for him and if he lost in a bad way... that he wouldn't be able to be a main event fighter again, and without being a main event fighter, he wouldn't make millions for a fight.

"Brock is not a guy who is going to fight for $500,000 or $700,000. He's just not going to do that, especially when he can make far more than that doing pro wrestling."

Meltzer spoke with the Yahoo! Sports team after Lesnar's loss, and said that Vince McMahon would want him back.

"He's [Vince McMahon] going to want him back," Meltzer stated. "They tried to get him for WrestleMania for last year and Dana wouldn't agree to release him... Dana's got him for contract for several more fights for a lengthy period of time."

Even if Vince McMahon and UFC President Dana White were to come to an agreement to bring Lesnar back into WWE, it would likely only be for a few shows.

"Brock will never go full time to pro wrestling," Meltzer said. "Brock will do a WrestleMania for a huge payoff, maybe he'll do two or three more pro wrestling matches and it will wear off."

You can check out video of the Yahoo! Sports team discussing Brock Lesnar's UFC retirement below:

Thanks to
Pete Gerber for contributing to this article. Got a news tip? Send it to us by clicking here.